Stephen Miller » Stephen’s Blog

7 ways to pray for God & Sinner Reconcile

Stephen — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:25:51 +0000

We have done a ton of work over this past year or so and spent more hours and resources than we can count in order to release our new album “God & Sinner Reconcile” tomorrow. And now we are on the eve of the release and all we can do is pray. So if you would join us, here are 7 ways to pray.

1. That the Holy Spirit would take the gospel truths in these songs and change people as he uses them to illuminate Christ to their hearts.

2. That the Lord would bless this work and cause its message to spread as far into the nations as possible for the glory of Jesus Christ and the joy of all people.

3. That those who have not trusted Jesus for salvation would hear this album and be wrecked out, brought to repentance, and reconciled to God through Christ.

4. That worship leaders and pastors across the earth would hear it and be refreshed by inner revival and renewed passion for their first Love.

5. That those who are struggling with sin would use these songs as hope-filled weapons of faith to fight their sin and know that God is better.

6. That people would not steal or endlessly spotify this music, but help fund our ongoing work of ministry.

7. That God would get every drop of glory out of all of this. Not to us, O Lord, but to your name be the glory!

Grace & Peace,
Stephen Miller

The Hope of Advent

Stephen — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:58:43 +0000

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Revelation 21:1-7

Creator God, a helpless babe
Has come into the world He made
Relinquished royal privilege
To come to us as God made flesh
Fully God, yet fully man
That each of us be born again
Born of a virgin, to David’s throne
A throne of straw in David’s home
Born as all the prophets said
Without sin or its deadly effects
To a world suffering under sin and death

Humble and lowly, he came to save
Giving life to all who the Father gave
With Gospel news, and Gospel grace
His righteousness to take our place
Our sins traded for his crown
Our death taken for his renown
That angels and men in chorus could sing
“Glory to the Risen King!”
And all things groaning to be restored
Would suffer under sin and death no more
A new Heaven and Earth, with Him as our Lord
Our Sun and Moon forevermore!
For He is the light that lights eternity
And he came to rescue – Let all creation sing!

New #7in7 Song: Psalm 143

Stephen — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:00:22 +0000

I wrote this one with my band mates, Corbin Petersen and Taylor Webb from Psalm 143. It’s a penitential lament that hopes in the faithfulness of God.

Psalm 143 by stephenmiller

I will think of all you’ve done
How you saved me In your mercy
When darkness pursued
I could run to you For my refuge

Don’t hide now – Show your face

I’m calling out to you
Hear my prayer For your name’s sake
With arms stretched high
I lift my soul To you

I will think of all you’ve done
When my troubles Overwhelm me
When the enemy pursues
And my soul is crushed I’ll sing

Don’t hide now – Show your face

I’m calling out to you
Hear my prayer For your name’s sake
With arms stretched high
I lift my soul To you

And my soul thirsts, My soul thirsts
For you, For you

Don’t hide now – Show your face

I’m calling out to you
Hear my prayer For your name’s sake
With arms stretched high
I lift my broken soul to you

New #7in7 Song: I Still Remember

Stephen — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:02:38 +0000

I wrote this song for my wife, Amanda. I really dig that woman’s chili. I mean that girl has the right kind of CoolAid and I’m drinking it all up…

I Still Remember by stephenmiller

I still remember first time we met
It was love at first sight of your golden blond hair
The sound of your laughter
The way you wore white
And I knew I was in for
The ride of my life

I still remember the first time we kissed
The smell of mint and Chapstick
The taste of your lips
That look in your eye & how it drew me in
I knew I was a goner
And my cover was thin

Cause I, I loved you
Yes I, I loved you

I still remember when we said “I do.”
With flowers, friends and family
Surrounding us in pews
Your smile through your tears
The way you wore white
And I knew that I’d love you
For the rest of my life

And I, I love you
And I, I love you

And when we grow old
In our then weathered skin
Our love will be stronger than when we began
When our eyes start to fail
When our hair is snow white
We’ll look back and remember our truly blessed life

Cause I will still love you
Yes I will still love you

#7in7 New Song: Hurry Now

Stephen — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 04:37:53 +0000

Here is my 3rd song for 7in7.

Somewhat uncharacteristic of my writing (which is why I love 7in7), it’s more of a song of anguish, but I think in a lot of ways it is written like some of the lamenting psalms of David… I think of Jesus in Gethsemane crying out in such intense anguish pleading with God.

It’s okay to be real with God… I’m pretty sure He’s big enough. I just felt the need to write a song about brokenness and finding Christ there.

Hurry Now by stephenmiller

If we are being honest
I’m not okay
If we are being honest
I’ve never felt so lonely
I’ve never felt so broken

No matter how I try to pick up the pieces
And fix the cracks in my heart
I stop and stare at the wall – just an empty canvas
Can’t help but feel its barrenness

But I know that you
Have been here too
Rejected and mistreated
So you stand with me
To lift me out
To lift me out
But could you hurry now?

Searching to find the bright side
A silver line on the clouds
Cause I know you’re riding on them
But it’s so dark in this light now

Imagining all the ways that I could spin it
But nothing will suffice
Seems absurd to call this a happy living
So hard to see the point sometimes

God I know that you have been here too
Rejected and mistreated
WIll you come to me and rescue me
Lift me out
Please hurry now

#7in7 New Song: Depths & Heights

Stephen — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 23:26:45 +0000

Here is another song for 7in7. It’s called Depths & Heights.

Depths & Heights by stephen-13

What depth has my depravity
But OH! What height has your grace
Oh Beauty conquer brokenness
Subduing all my shame

Rapture me with your delights
Fill my soul up with your fire
Satisfy this ever-wandering heart

What depths from which you’ve pulled me out
But OH! What heights we’ll ascend
The Majesty of your renown
I’ll sing for days without end

Rapture me with your delights
Fill my soul up with your fire
Satisfy this ever-wandering heart

Sing for Joy for Love has come
For Love has come to save
Sing for joy for He has come
To lift us from the grave

#7in7 New Song: You Are Great

Stephen — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:07:08 +0000

I know… I know… It’s a super original title. But here it is.

You Are Great by stephenmiller

Oh the miracle of this brand new heart
With a mighty hand you’ve made
And To think about your eternal power
How could my heart not sing

Lord you are great
So great things I will pray
Lord you are great
And greatly to be praised!

What a miracle You will split the sky
And the dead in Christ will raise
To the glory of Our risen Lord
And forever we will praise

Lord you are great
So great things I will pray
Lord you are great
And greatly to be praised!

Nothing is too much for you
And nothing is too great.
You alone are strong enough to save

Songs for the Journey: Order of Worship 11/12-13/11

Stephen — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:14:26 +0000

What an incredible weekend! It was so exciting to see God move in so many people’s lives and call them to be baptized. We celebrated God’s trustworthiness and kindness to us and then moved into celebrating the Lord’s death, resurrection and return.

We opened with “A Mighty Fortress” remembering that God is our refuge and we can run to him and be safe, and worshiping him in light of that.

We then prayed a prayer of confession and supplication called “O Fountain of All Good” from The Valley of Vision, a collection of puritan prayers.

O Fountain of all good, destroy in me every lofty thought, break pride to pieces and scatter it to the winds… Break me, then bind me up…

Nothing exceeds thy power, nothing is too great for thee to do, nothing too good for thee to give. Infinite is thy might, boundless thy love, limitless thy grace, glorious thy saving name…

Let angels sing for sinners repenting, prodigals restored, blind eyes opened, broken hearts bound up, and saints built up in their holy faith.

I ask great things of a great God.

Because God is a great God… both sovereign AND loving… we can trust him and put all our hope in him and be confident he will never let us down… So we sang “You Are Sovereign Here” to praise him for his never-ending faithfulness to us. Every situation we face, whether trials or blessing, is working together for our good and his glory. He is never far from us!

We ended our first time of singing together with “Rock of Ages” where we yet again remembered that all our hope is in Jesus and he is our rock and refuge, as well as our righteousness and only hope for salvation.

For communion, we sang “Mystery” to praise God that he has died, risen and is coming again! Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Celebrate his death and rising
Lift your eyes, proclaim His coming!

Then we partied hard as people displayed with baptism that Jesus is the God who brings the dead to life!

Songs for the Journey: Order of Worship for 11/5-6/11

Stephen — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 01:48:32 +0000

This week we began with “A Mighty Fortress” to remember who God is and what he has done for us, and stand in awe of that as the fuel for our worship of His holy name.

A mighty fortress is our God
A sacred refuge is Your name
Your Kingdom is unshakeable
With You forever we will reign

We then moved into singing of our only hope, which is found “In Christ Alone.” Our hope is not in religion or works, and we can never earn our own salvation… the work of Jesus Christ alone is the very substance of our hope.

We ended out the morning with singing in adoration of the holiness of God in “Revelation Song” and then reflected on the truth that Jesus alone is worthy to call us righteous and holy as he is holy. What sweet truth to cling to.

In response to Jonathan McIntosh’s sermon on religion and works versus the grace of Jesus, we reflected on “Amazing Grace” as we took communion together.

Then we closed out our time of worshiping together with the words of “Behold The Spotless Lamb.”

With justice led to victory
Our hope to stand in Him complete
Rests solely in our risen King
Not by our works, it’s by His grace

Songs for the Journey: Order of Worship 10.30.11

Stephen — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:59:38 +0000

What an incredible Sunday morning of worship this week. As Darrin preached on Jesus and Miracles, we really wanted to celebrate God’s power and supremacy!

We opened with the call to worship, “Crown Him with Many Crowns,” and declared together that he is the King, the Lamb upon his throne and is fully deserving of our worship. In doing so, we join with the heavenly anthem that drowns out all music but its own, “All hail our Redeemer, who died eternal life to bring, and lives that death may die!”

In Mark 6:30-56, we see that the impetus of Jesus’ miracles was his great compassion that he had on people, who were lost like sheep without a shepherd. It was out of his compassion that he worked miracles and it is out of compassion that he works salvation for us, the greatest Miracle of all. So we sang “Mighty to Save” together to praise God for his redeeming work in our lives.

Finally, concluding our initial time of worship through singing, we sang of the supremacy of God in the song, “Our God,” which names the very miracles that he has done and declares that he is greater, stronger and higher than any other.

In response, along with communion, we prayed for people to be healed holistically, both physically and emotionally, along with any other needs people had. As we prayed and remembered in communion, we sang, “There Is A Fountain,” for it is the blood of Jesus that is the power for every miracle, every physical or emotional healing, every spiritual renewal, and certainly for salvation itself.

In closing, we sang “God & Sinner Reconcile” and praised God that he became sin so we might become his righteousness. He died that we may have life. It is by his wounds we are healed and he is faithful to use our wounds for our good, to make us more like himself each day. This is the truth we walk in daily.